Personality disorders are defined in ICD-10 as deeply ingrained and enduring behaviour patterns manifesting as inflexible responses to a broad range of personal and social situations. They represent extreme or significant deviations from the way average individuals in a given culture perceive, think, feel and relate to others. They are often associated with subjective distress and problems in social functioning and performance. They tend to appear in late childhood or adolescence and continue to be manifest into adulthood; it is therefore unlikely that a diagnosis of personality disorder is appropriate in those under the age of 17 years.
DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA
The DSM-IV-TR criteria for a personality disorder are as follows.
A. An enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture. This pattern is manifested in two (or more) of the following areas:
(1) Cognition (i.e. ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people and events)
(2) Affectivity (i.e. the range, intensity, lability and appropriateness of emotional response)
(3) Interpersonal functioning
(4) Impulse control
B. The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations.
C. The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning.
E. The enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder.
F. The enduring pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g. head trauma).
TYPES
Paranoid personality disorder
Related posts:
Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel
Full access? Get Clinical Tree
